“Every time a husband and wife fought, the man would say ‘get out of my house’ because the house was in his name. So we decided that we would fight to get our names included as joint owners of the property,” says Manisha Mukane, leader of the Stree Gauki or women’s collective of Phanaswadi village in Karjat Tehsil of Raigad, Maharashtra.

In 2010, Phanaswadi was the first hamlet in Mandavni gram panchayat to get houses registered in the names of both husband and wife. With all 60 houses in the village jointly in couple’s names, domestic violence against women has reduced drastically.

The women’s collective is an adjunct of Jagrut Kashtakari Sangatana (JKS) and Disha Kendra, which have been working in Raigad since the Seventies for land and forest rights, as well as the housing, education, health and livelihood needs of tribals in Karjat, Khalapur and Panvel. Despite being at the forefront of the tribal struggles, women were not given leadership positions.

The Stree Gauki was formed after a meeting of 50 women (Khatkaris, Thakars and Mahadev Kohlis) from 25 villages of Karjat block. Since the late-Eighties, the collective has slowly spread its work to 60 villages. Men who became violent at home were questioned by these vigilante women.

At every village the Stree Gauki could be seen in action. Its leader, Leela Surve, says the organisation has taken charge of running schools and anganwadis. It handles land development, forest collection, inland fisheries and livelihood issues. It manages a livelihood project involving 385 varieties of medicinal trees in the forests of Karjat.

When a two-year-old died of diarrhoea at Margachiwadi in Pathris gram panchayat of Karjat, it triggered off a discussion among the local women on modern and traditional healthcare. This, in turn, spurred the adoption of life-saving ORT (oral rehydration therapy) in this region.

At Phanaswadi, the collective ensured that the PDS (public distribution system) outlet functioned properly and supplied the 35kg of rice they were entitled to, as against the 25kg they were receiving. Traditionally the village had access to the forests and cremation grounds, but after a farmhouse owner constructed a wall to isolate the village, they fought all the way to the High Court in Mumbai and won the case with the help of the Human Rights Law Network.

The idea of a grain bank to help tribal families in distress as well as during weddings and other rituals also came from the Stree Gauki. In 2010, the first grain bank was set up with a revolving fund of ₹12,000 provided by Disha Kendra for six quintals of rice. The interest for the grain loan was a kilogram more than borrowed. However, the grain bank stopped working in 2014 when the women started working at brick kilns. They now have another initiative in place for their children. Local adivasi Jyoti Waghmare is in charge of an anganwadi centre that looks after the health and education of 10 children.

With the support of TISS (Tata Institute of Social Sciences) graduates working in Raigad, an adolescents’ group called Kanya Shakti has been formed in Phanaswadi and Ambewadi villages to work closely with the collective on issues of public health, livelihood and atrocities on women and adolescents.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi

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